After hate incident, Salem State students protest univeristy rally

Wednesday

Oct 11, 2017 at 4:17 PMOct 12, 2017 at 9:01 AM

William J. Dowd wdowd@wickedlocal.com @WJD_MHDReporter

Local leaders and Salem State University students, faculty, administrators and alumni assembled in front of the university’s library Oct. 5 for a discussion on how to advance inclusiveness and prevent acts of bias and hate.

The mid-day, university-organized forum, dubbed “Forward Together – So We Can Do Better,” came five days after the higher-education institution discovered vandals spraypainted “Die [n-word]” and “Whites Only USA” along a wall and on a bench at the university’s baseball field.

And hundreds were able to attend the afternoon discussion because the university’s president, John Keenan, shut down the campus – a move he called unprecedented and indicative of how seriously the university is responding to the incident.

“I wish we didn’t have to cancel classes and close university offices today to talk about racism on our campus and in our country. But, we must,” he said. “I wish we could enjoy this beautiful, sunny, New England fall day on our campus. But, we cannot.”

On the heels of the racist-laced messages, Keenan said several students told him they feel unsafe. He said university police – with consultation from the Essex County Sheriff and the Salem Police Department – immediately responded to the incident and an investigation into the perpetrator(s) is underway.

“If we do find the coward who painted the racist graffiti on our field, they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” said Keenan. “And if this person is a student, they will be dismissed immediately from this institution.”

Keenan spoke from behind a podium atop a platform before the crowd. He was flanked by faculty, staff, Mayor Kim Driscoll, state Rep. Paul Tucker, Salem City Council President Elaine Milo, Ward 5 Councilor Josh Turiel, Ward 4 Councilor David Eppley, Ward 7 Councilor Stephen Dibble, Salem No Place for Hate Committee Chairman Jeff Cohen and Vice President of Inclusive Excellence Lisa McBride.

As elected and university officials spoke, a protesting procession of classmates clad in black clothing – many from the student organization “Black, Brown and Proud” - filled in a large patch of grass in front of the platform.

McBride opened the discussion, saying the hate-filled messages were "deeply painful" for her.

"And of course the pain is magnified a thousandfold for those whose dignity was attacked," she said. "It's absolutely not who we want to be.”

For Driscoll, a Salem State alumna, learning of the incident left her “bewildered, frustrated and angry.” She committed herself, like Keenan, to ensuring future incidents do not happen. She spoke as protesting students sat while everyone stood.

Driscoll, reading from prepared remarks, appeared unprepared to make an address at her alma mater to protesting students. When she called on everyone to stand and recite “not here” in regards to acts of bigotry, the protesting students remained sitting.

After the event, she posted pictures of the protesting students hugging to her Facebook page.

“No community or college campus is immune from hatred and it's clear we have work to do to make sure all members of our campus community and our city feel welcome, respected and heard. We all have a role to play in this effort,” wrote Driscoll. “So proud of the many Salem State students who came together this afternoon to voice their thoughts and feelings at today's rally and I pledge to work alongside president Keenan to stand up to bigotry and hatred on and off campus.”

Guillermo Avila, an associate professor of media and communication and a fellow in the university’s Center for Diversity and Cultural Enrichment, followed Driscoll’s remarks and said he admired protesting students before him. He joined students who said they possessed pessimism in the gathering’s purpose and called on students to hold administration accountable. Remarks from the podium gave way to a student leading the more than a hundred unified classmates in a set of chants.

“We have no voice,” he yelled to his peers responding: “We have no voice.”

He followed that chant with, “We will not die,” to the group yelling back, “We will not die.”

In a student-comment period, several said their calls for change on campus – the most diverse among Massachusetts’ university system - have fallen on deaf ears. Pledges for change, they argued, have been ignored.

Lima spoke from the podium rather than a microphone setup in the crowd, saying she did so, because the platform needed “another brown face up here.”

“Stop bringing students [of color here] to get more budgets,” she said, adding she felt the university used the faces of students of color to get more money.

Lima, like others, acknowledged bringing change to a complex, complicated issue such as race and diversity as hard.

“I don’t know the solutions,” she said.

Students who spoke charged the university with sweeping past hate incidents under the rug or ignoring them all together. Some alleged university police treat students of color differently to their white peers. Others said a dearth of resources for students of color and university employees from diverse backgrounds existed on campus. Another brought attention to the appointment of Keenan in August as the higher-education institution's 14th president over a Latino woman with rich academic experience.

“I promise every fiber in my body to make sure incidents like this don’t go unnoticed,” said Keenan in a break from the event’s itinerary. “We cancelled classes and shutdown the university – it means that much to us.”